bummer
Steve

You guys are all talking of other motorcycles which use either a sleeve and bushings or a sleeve with little needle bearings. Yes these need lube quite often, and even then aren't heavy duty. The shaft used real roller bearings. Not to say they don't need lube, but chances of them being in bad shape is definitely less than on other Kawasakis.
They built everything on the shaft heavy to last, then in 1981 went to the KZ1100 shaft and all heavy duty was replaced with regular duty parts.

Isn't it lubricated internally? My grease zerk was backwards so I couldn't get to it. Got another one that would face the right way, by that time the damage was done.
Steve

Do I have to remove drive shaft to grease left bearing? (shaft model)

Dealing with the aftermath of what happens when the swing arm bearings aren't greased. on my 82 GPz750.Those nice heavy duty roller bearing can be turned into so much rust.Got to replace the sleeve,bearings and the pivot bolt because it was so stuck it had to be pounded out.Unlike your KZ1000 most of those parts are NLA from Kawi :S Swing arm and shocks have they're own fiche on the ones I've looked at.Yes I'm going to ad a grease nipple to the swing arm.

If I remember right,back in the day,Kawasaki swingarms had a reputation for drying out bearings.So much so that people would drill a hole under the pivot area and thread in a grease nipple.
Maybe an urban legend but twas one of those things,like Yamahas were known for seizing brake calipers and Suzukis for bad electrics and Hondas for dodgy camchain tensioners.

Now that the swing arm is mounted properly it means I can move onto the rear rim. First order of business is sorting out the smaller diameter axle vs the larger axle diameter of CB1300. Easiest and safest way to get over this issue is to fit try and find bearings with the same outside dimensions but an internal that fits the ZZR axle diameter. Off to Saeco bearings tomorrow to see what I can find...............Will keep you posted.

True.
Steve

RonKZ650 wrote: They used two heavy duty, good quality roller bearings. Like all the KZ1000E parts, basically the best of the best quality and heavy duty, made to last. I wouldn't worry about the bearings unless you're up in the 200,000 mile area. Age doesn't matter to a bearing.

It matters if theyve never been greased! :laugh:

Greas them.
Steve